US Representative Darrell Issa, one of the most powerful men in the country, a man who can call cabinet secretaries in for hours of interrogation in front of the Oversight and Government Reform (OGR) Committee has been forced to table a hearing on the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (NVICP). What kind of pressure might have caused Issa to make this choice? We don’t know for sure, but there is one obvious candidate.

Pharma.

Working through their not-for profit pro-vaccine advocacy allies, pharma exerted enormous influence and likely created the pressure (either direct or indirect) that forced Congressman Issa to pull the plug. Every Child By Two and Voices for Vaccines, two organizations with strong drug industry ties, slammed all the buttons and, as usual, threatened to lay any “vaccine preventable deaths” at Congressman Issa’s doorstep. Pharma used fear because they were afraid. What is it that drug industry supporters are so afraid of?

Autism.

What the NVICP really knows about autism is terrifying to people like Paul Offit, Dorit Reiss and Amy Pisani. These folks can spout the decisions of the Special Masters in the Omnibus Autism Proceedings (OAP) all they want. It won’t do anything to cover up the truth about what doctors like Geoffrey Evans and Vito Casserta in the Division of Vaccine Injury Compensation already knew years ago; sometimes vaccines tragically cause brain injury - an encephalopathy. A consequence of that injury, what the program calls a sequela, often includes the behavioral disorder known as autism.The people in the NVICP know this to be true. A recent paper I co-authored, Unanswered Questions From the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program: A Review of Compensated Cases of Vaccine-Induced Brain Injury (Holland, Conte, Krakow, Colin, ), documented this clearly. While not getting access to the vast majority of the 1,300+ cases compensated for brain damage, we still found 83 cases where the vaccine injury included autism. This would have been very difficult to explain – or deny – under oath.

Since publication of Unanswered Questions, more compensated cases have emerged (US Court of Claims, Case Number: 06-227V) and more families have stepped forward with the same pattern of vaccine injury – encephalopathy featuring autism. It would have been really awkward for those in the program to explain why twenty-five years of these kinds of cases had nothing to do with the rulings in the Omnibus Autism Proceedings. Rolf Hazelhurst’s statement at a recent Congressional Briefing about the curious behavior of government officials involved in the OAP must really have raised anxiety in the Office of the Special Masters and the Division of Vaccine Injury Compensation.

The sad truth is that all of the petitioners who filed claims that ended up being dismissed under the Omnibus Autism Proceedings were victims of the same injustice that was visited upon the OAP test case families. There are 5,000 OAP cases that may be like Michele Cedillo and Yates Hazelhurst. And there are thousands and thousands more who never had a chance to file in the NVICP. People denied justice because of a label, such as “autism”, are the victims of discrimination. And discrimination, even in the name of protecting public health policy, is still discrimination.This is why Darrell Issa needed to drag people from the NVICP in front of a room full of mystified US Representatives and disgusted families.

The staffers that said that the hearing was postponed because it this issue is so divisive were right. The hearing on the NVICP would have re-ignited the vaccine injury – autism controversy right smack in the middle of a Congress already beset with conflicts. Taking on the powerful pharmaceutical industry AND the federal public health establishment would be a daunting task. But the autism problem won’t go away. It is certainly reasonable to believe that the passage of the 1986 Vaccine Act that started the NVICP also triggered the autism epidemic. Autism and the NVICP are intertwined and the program will never be viable until it opens the books and finally discloses the truth of vaccine injury.

The NVICP has wandered far away from what Congress intended it to be. It is a legal netherworld where truth is concealed and precedent set only when it suits the interests of the industry it protects. To say that the program no longer functions the way Congress intended actually glosses over the fact that the program no longer functions at all. Petitioners and their expert witnesses are regularly abused. Attorneys working for petitioners have just about given up trying to file cases for vaccine injured children because the program has become unworkable.

Press releases from the pharma-funded not-for-profits noted that the NVICP had compensated some vaccine injury victims. I know some of the families who managed to achieve compensation for their children. Hardly any feel that the program is fair. Ed and Joyce Alger’s son Danny was compensated in the early years of the program for a DPT injury. Danny suffered encephalopathy, autism and seizures. A few years ago, Danny, now in his thirties, suffered a fall and was partially paralyzed. He returned home from the hospital a few days ago after a bout of pneumonia.

Danny Alger has suffered more for the greater good and the miracle of vaccines than any human being should. His life has not been what it should have been.

The money from Danny’s settlement ran out years ago. Ed and Joyce still care for Danny at home. Ed’s a Vietnam Veteran, battling his own health issues but always calls me to see how I’m doing and how my sons are. Joyce, always brave and honest, sends me inspirational emails.

Ed told me the other day that he has high hopes for the hearing and that he loves Darrell Issa. “The guy has balls and will ask tough questions.”

Congressman Issa, please reschedule the hearing on the NVICP as soon as possible. The cowards who hide behind this program will issue press releases calling you anti-vaccine. They will accuse you of listening to “fringe elements” and criticize you for questioning their version of “science”. You will make powerful people angry but you may force us to re-examine our public health policies. It will be divisive. Because revealing an unjust status quo often is.

But it may finally allow two good people to look in their son’s eyes with some peace.

Your call, Congressman.

Louis Conte, is the father of triplet boys, two with autism. He has thirty years of law enforcement and investigatory experience.

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"The practice of pediatric medicine would be very different if there was no NVICP. Dr. Hickie and his 60,000 colleagues would be more circumspect with their use of vaccines if they could be hauled into court and held liable for their professional errors in judgement when vaccine injury occurs."

Nothing about the NVICP prevents someone from suing a provider for malpractice now.

Of course, you would have to have some actual evidence to back up your claim. Something that is sorely lacking in this emotional blame-fest.

"I am troubled you didn't blame me and my pediatric colleagues as well for this. After all, I am the one who gives vaccines and does so for the health of all children and public health in general."

The practice of pediatric medicine would be very different if there was no NVICP. Dr. Hickie and his 60,000 colleagues would be more circumspect with their use of vaccines if they could be hauled into court and held liable for their professional errors in judgement when vaccine injury occurs.

The Waterloo for ignorant vaccinationists might very well be the HPV shot. It goes beyond the pale in that it clearly crosses over into the realm of medical experimentation on humans lacking informed consent. We will not know whether the HPV series prevents a single cancer until the test subjects- millions of children and young adults- age out another decade or two. The utter moral bankruptcy and corruption of the indiscriminate vaccinationists are revealed by the fact that they have signed on to this inhumane project to inject millions of humans with an unproven agent and, well, you know- hope for the best. What should happen is that they should thrown in jail for trying to profit from using our children and fellow citizens as human guinea pigs in their demented "research."

Hickie and his vaccinationist cronies are dangerous frauds. They imperil not only the health of our citizens, but our national security as well. Until their evil self serving crimes against all humanity are exposed, our world is a less safe place for children and all other living things.

Personally I knew this hearing would not take place as scheduled as of the abosolutely unnecessary government shut down. There was no way the hearing schedule was going to remain as set and I am sure a few other hearings throughout Congress were rescheduled as well.

That said I still believed even then that the govt shutdown was only going to be a convenient excuse. As much as I respect Rep. Issa for his efforts to help us I am dismayed at how much time he has wasted on the whole Bengazi (sp?) issue and other dead end issues he and the Republicans have tried hard to discredit the President. Regardless of your political viewpoint I hope we can agree there are so many more important issues in this world that need to be investigated.

I am reluctant to believe that we will ever see justice for our kids when there is so much unchecked money (google "Citizen's United) flying around Washington being used to threaten and coerce incumbent candidates. A few lobbyists show up in Issa's to push Pharma's wish list, a few passing comments back and forth and even Darrel Issa has to pay attention if he wants to keep his office and his power.

How charming of Dr. Hickie to stop by from time to time to taunt the injured and bereaved by waving his syringe and his license to carry it. You keep posting Dr. Hickie. Strangely enough, your posts have a place here as you clearly demonstrate how ignorant, heartless and dangerous your profession is.

Chris Hickie - have some respect for the innocent babies and children who have suffered injuries and even death from their vaccinations. Attitudes like yours are what's wrong with this dialogue. There is no question that vaccines cause injury, autism, arthritis, encephalopathy, death and a whole host of other adverse events. Read the injury table. Read the cases awarded compensation on the court website. Educate yourself and for God's sake, have some compassion for those stricken ill.

Political hot potato aside, in this social media and internet based connected, open information world where a whole set of dictatorial regimes were over turned in weeks (aka Arab spring), secrecy and lack of transparency around vaccine safety and compensation to the injury will only erode the the trust of parents in the medical and public health ecosystem. The folks who are stopping these hearings (Pharma and others) are responsible for the erosion of trust and any onset of vaccine preventable diseases. Hope they realize it.

What a lot of non-sequiturs - standing pathetically on professional dignity. Their have unfortunately been many times in human history where groups have acted in unenlightened ways collectively and out of self-interest, with blistering self-righteousness.

No doubt - as if with your previous comments here - you will beat a hasty retreat, failing to respond to reasoned comments.

I am troubled you didn't blame me and my pediatric colleagues as well for this. After all, I am the one who gives vaccines and does so for the health of all children and public health in general. Really--what kind of half-baked baked article are you putting out here if you don't fling your web of blame on the 60,000 pediatricians in America? Maybe I gave Issa ONE BILLION dollars to cancel the meeeting.

1) to demand that there is no secrecy in any past awards as long as the parent consents. Surely no one can argue for secrecy in the awards with a straight face or a good reason, other than guilt.

2) that we find as many "SIDS" cases as we can where the parents believe it was vaccine-related, and offer to put THOSE out there to match so-called "Vaccine-preventable deaths" against "vaccine-caused deaths". . . Sadly, and tragically, we will have FAR more on our side.

Is it correct that Mr. Hazelhurst is an assistant US (federal) prosecutor? A person who is trained in evidentiary procedures and legal tactics to uncover criminal activities and put criminals in federal prison?

If that is the case- possibly that is the very reason the hearings (which were never actually scheduled on the public OGR website calendar) are "postponed."

The vaccine criminals are in trouble and running out of friends. The flu shot for Chrissake is killing kids and causing narcolepsy. The dirty, disgusting, open secret of vaccine induced iatrogenic brain injury is out of the closet and festering in plain view. Thanks to efforts like AoA, Refusers, EBCALA, ARI, TMR, EOH, and others too numerous to mention.

Every credible medical research resource contains numerous peer reviewed citations of vaccine injuries. Look at NLM, NIH, and Cochrane. Starting with the exponential increase of soft tissue cancers caused by SV 40 tainted polio shots, moving on to various brain injuries such as ADEM, transverse myletis, seizure disorders, GB, and finally autoimmune disorders of all kinds- autistic enterocolits, asthma, arthritis, food allergies....the literature is replete with documented pathways by which vaccines kill and maim. Denying the horrendous nature and widespread extent of vaccine injury has become a fools (or criminal's) errand. The more they deny, the more they lie.

A federal prosecutor is just the ticket. Mr. Hazelhurst, please stay the course. Look them in the eye and call them on their lies. Use your experience in putting filthy maggots in jail to put these filthier maggots in jail. Hang 'em high!

Someone suggested here the other day that we comment on Mr. Issa's Facebook page. I just did so, but there was no section there about the hearing into Vaccine Court. I saw a comment by Twyla and commented under hers, but it was under an unrelated topic. What does this mean? That we're supposed to forget that it was ever scheduled and is supposedly just postponed?

This hearing takes aim at the laws, policies and committees put in place by those who really are in control of this country. That's why it was cancelled. That's why there is no press release. That's why there is no explanation - from them.

"The staffers that said that the hearing was postponed because this issue is so divisive were right."

Are we to believe that members of Congress will fold like this under pressure? Are there issues simply too "divisive" for Washington to deal with? If this is true, then no one is there to protect our children. They'll just go on being selective victims of an unsafe, unchecked vaccine program mandated on them by the states.

If the actions of the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee headed by Dr. Thomas Insel are anything to go by, we can't expect Washington to ever deal with the cause of autism. Since its creation in 2006, IACC has spent years looking into autism and doing nothing to stop the epidemic. Most of all, they refuse to honestly address the cause, probably for the reason the OGR hearing was cancelled.

They know it's a political hot potato. Aside from the fact that parents who have been through it have said that vaccine court is an unfair process, I think we have grounds to contest the very constitutionality of the NVICP and the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986 which denies our kids their basic constitutional rights and creates zero accountability to the industry. The last thing pro-vaxers want is this sweet deal to be scrutinized. The pro-vaccine side will do everything they can to stop this hearing.

"US Representative Darrell Issa, one of the most powerful men in the country, a man who can call cabinet secretaries in for hours of interrogation in front of the Oversight and Government Reform (OGR) Committee has been forced to table a hearing on the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (NVICP). What kind of pressure might have caused Issa to make this choice? We don’t know for sure ..."

Indeed, how does ANYONE force "one of the most powerful men in the country" to "table a hearing" on ANYTHING .. let alone the NVICP? In my humble .. admittedly uneducated opinion .. Rep. Issa has a professional responsibility as Chairman of the OGR .. to publicly explain HOW and WHO is responsible for his "forced" decision "to table a hearing on NVICP"?

Everyone knows this is a very "divisive issue" for Congress .. but .. the issue none-the-less .. must be confronted by "one of the most powerful men in this country". If not Rep. Issa .. who will do it?

I do not envy Rep. Issa's task to pursue this issue .. but .. all I can do is pray to God he has the personal courage and integrity .. to do the right thing .. while knowing ...

"The cowards who hide behind this program will issue press releases calling you anti-vaccine. They will accuse you of listening to “fringe elements” and criticize you for questioning their version of “science”. You will make powerful people angry but you may force us to re-examine our public health policies."

Like some sage once said .. Rep Issa must "lead" .. or else .. do the "right thing" .. and .. "get out of the way"